What Were They Thinking? A First Thanksgiving Primary Source Activity

Students will first read about the first Thanksgiving, while also having the chance to explore a bit more about the first bread-breaking between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims. A graphic organizer is included to help students research and take notes about their findings. Three guiding questions are also included to help students (and the teacher) stay on track during this study.

Students will then take a look at primary sources from the Library of Congress and think "What Were they saying?" by filling in speech and thought bubbles that are embedded into each of the Thanksgiving themed pictures, photographs, and artistic representations of the first Thanksgiving.

On the back of each of the primary and secondary sources, students have a graphic organizer which they will fill in based on "What they see, What they Know, and What they still have questions about." I would expect this to take students approximately one week if you are going to show all of the primary sources, but you can also use this in a jigsaw fashion and give small groups of students different primary sources to look at, which would reduce this to a couple of days.

This is a student-centered, interactive activity that kids will have fun with, while also learning about the history of Thanksgiving.

Thank you!! :)

-Dan